Almost June and it is time to think of replacing those old, worn out roses in the garden. We want to plant new roses in the same place, but have read that one shouldn’t do this. There is a terrible disease called ROSE REPLANT DISEASE According to the experts, it is almost certain death to a new rose if you plant it in the same location as an old rose. Some talk of nasties in the soil which will affect the new plant.
Let us look carefully at this. At the VSRG we have been replacing beds of roses every year. The new roses go into the same beds as the old roses came out of. This seems to make a joke of the experts’ advice, but let us not be too hasty in rejecting the lore.
The truth behind the “Disease” is one that gardeners have long known and abided by, particularly vegetable growers. They call it monoculture. For example, if you grow tomatoes in the same ground year after year, the plants will be poorer in quality and there will be less fruit each successive year. The continuous cropping of one species has used up the nutrients required by that type of plant.
There is a simple answer to overcome the problem. Replace the soil or enrich it. We do this. After removing the old roses we remove some soil from the beds – for two reasons. Firstly, the addition of mulch over the years has built up the level of the beds well above the surrounding areas. Secondly, we are about to increase the height of the beds by additional material. For preference we scrape the good top soil to one side and remove the next layer (the clay, with root debris).
We then rotary hoe the soil, then add lawn clippings, fertiliser and any mulch we can get hold of. The beds are then rotary hoed again to mix it all together, and allowed to stand for, we hope, at least six weeks before we plant the new roses.
The new roses can then be planted in good “new” soil and generally thrive well.
For your home situation, remove at least two bucketfuls of “old” soil where the old rose was growing, replace it with soil that has never grown a rose before, add mulch and fertiliser, let it stand for at least six weeks, then plant your rose. Keep the old soil for your vegie garden. Alternatively, use flood irrigation into the old site and wash the nasties down into the subsoil.
